Rome at home – pizza rossa

I have written about street food in Rome in this post. The two most popular street foods are pizza bianca and pizza rosa. Last night I made pizza dough just for fun and let it rise in the fridge overnight to develop flavour. today I thought I’d make pizza rossa to remind me of what it was like to have it in Rome.

A dough based on 3 cups “00” flour made 4 elongated pizzas. You can make the recipe and keep half the dough in the fridge overnight or freeze it. It will keep in the fridge for a couple of days developing flavour with the slow rise and will keep in the freezer longer.

I am giving directions for making the dough in the food processor, but you can also make it by hand.

---

 

Ingredients:

---

1 teaspoon active dry yeast

1/2 cup water

3 cups “00” flour

1 cup water

1/2 teaspoon coarse salt

1 tablespoon olive oil

---

 

Directions:

---

Dissolve the yeast in the half cup warm water until foamy.

Pour it into the bowl of the food processor.

Add the flour, salt 1/2 cup water and olive oil and begin processing, adding just enough water to bring the dough together.

Process until the dough form a ball and cleans the sides of the bowl.

Remove to the counter, knead by hand a few times, adding more flour as necessary but only the minimum amount.

Roll into a ball, place in oiled bowl, cover with plastic and refrigerate overnight (or proceed with the recipe).

The next day remove the dough from the fridge, bring to room temperature and let rise until doubles in size. When you press 2 fingers into the dough, if they leave an indentation then the dough is ready. If the dough bounces back let it rise some more.

Cut the dough in 4 pieces being careful not to deflate it too much,

With your fingers poke the dough and stretch it gently into a rectangle without using a rolling pin. you want to keep as much air in the dough as possible.

Let the dough rest 15 minutes before proceeding.

To bake, brush the dough with olive oil and spoon pizza sauce over.

Bake in a preheated 500F oven preferably over a pizza stone until crisp and puffed.

Serve immediately.

---

 

Pizza sauce:

---

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 clove garlic

1 can chopped San Marzano tomatoes

Coarse sea salt.

Place olive oil and garlic in a skillet, gently bring up the temperature until the garlic is fragrant.

Add the tomatoes and cook over medium heat until the sauce thickens and the tomatoes soften.

Add salt to taste.

Mash the tomatoes with the back of a wooden spoon if necessary.

---

---

---